Alright! Yesterday the CRXFi became road legal! This is a huge landmark in the project! I am going to be driving it around town and hopefully on a few longer trips before it gets too cold.
I already have some initial observations since the block heater install: Last night was very chilly. There was a freeze advisory here last night and I had to drive it at around 11pm. It wasn't freezing yet, but it was definitely "c'monnnn heaterrr" weather. I decided to test how fast the heater provided any kind of comforting amount of heat. Granted a majority of the trip was a long hill, but it took about 5 miles before the thermometer needle moved up and it started pumping out any kind of heat. I cant wait to see what the block heater does.
I'm definitely going full grill block on this - the honda radiator (twice the volume of the stock XFi radiator), the custom hoses I had to make to accommodate that radiator (about twice the tubing that it normally has), the block heater, and all the custom hoses and 90 deg turns I had to cobble together to make the block heater fit in, add quite the extra volume of coolant that has to run through the engine. There is a LOT fo thermal mass for that teeny little engine to heat up, which makes getting up to operating temp more difficult, and certainly makes the wait for personal comfort on chilly days/nights much longer.
When going up the aforementioned hill with 1 passenger (heh), and a bunch of stuff in the hatch, it had a pretty hard time climbing a long yet shallow grade at speeds that don't piss off other drivers. I was up to I'd say about 90% throttle in an area that transitions from 45mph to 50. I was holding a steady 45 in 4th gear. I hadn't tried shifting to 3rd, but I feel like there wouldn't be much left in it to take me above 45. This leads me to believe that unless I lived in Texas or central New Jersey or southern Ontario where SOME PEOPLE can pull down mighty MPGs all day on flat surfaces, the special 3.52 swift transmission would not be viable for this application. I can't knock it till I try it, but I'm a bit low on impetus at the moment to swap transmissions in and out, so for now I think I'll keep the stock XFi trans. This opens up the possible opportunity for a 3.52 swift transmission for sale
pics/video still to come!